1. Plastic Strategy and Marine Litter
European Maritime Day, 31 May - 1 June 2018
Maritime Affairs and Fisheries

2. Plastic in ocean increasing
Number of species of seabirds that have ingested plastic
I may look for another picture. This figure is not really convincing because it shows the number of species found with litter. The increase could be caused by more observations. There are indications that the concentrations are increasing but I couldn't immediately find a nice figure

3. Scale of marine litter problem
Up to 8 t of plastic are dumped into the sea annually (1,75Mt – from sea-based sources)
If we started from no plastic in the oceans in 2015, by 2025 there could potentially be over 160 million tons of plastic in the seas (according to Metro group)

5. What is EU contribution to solve the plastic problem in oceans

6. A EUROPEAN STRATEGY FOR PLASTICS IN THE CIRCULAR ECONOMY
Smart
Innovative
Sustainable
Opportunities
Social innovation
Environment
Four main axis
We want to create a SMART, INNOVATIVE AND SUSTAINABLE plastics industry. This will lead to economic opportunities, social innovation and a green future for Europe.
We plan to achieve this vision via 4 main axis of action.

7. Actions to tackle sea-based sources Where does Fishing Gear fit in
Revision of PRF directive for the delivery of waste from ships
Development of measures to reduce loss or abandonment of fishing gear at sea (including recycling targets, EPR schemes, recycling funds or deposit schemes)
Development of measures to limit plastic loss from aquaculture (e.g. possible Best Available Techniques Reference Document)
Dealing with international aspects (FADs, cooperation with FAO)
The main sources of data and information used were:
Country reports prepared by geographic experts (field research)
Data on planned commitments in EMFF OPs
Data submitted by MS for and 2016 (Art report)
Data of EFF ex-post evaluation
Published literature on marine litter

8. Draft directive of EP and Council on the reduction of the impact of certain plastic products on the environment
COM adopted 28/05/2018 – next – trialogs
Focus SUP - 4 options- option chosen - to change consumer behaviour and product design
Fishing gear - 4 options- option chosen- introduce EPR, by adding dedicated mechanism for separate collection and returning gear to port and treatment and recycling of gear- this COM proposal was based on significant stakeholder contribution and this option considered most effective by stakeholders
Article 8 of draft Directive sets MS responsibility to establish EPR schemes regarding fishing gear

9. CONTROL REGULATION (1224/2009)
Existing instruments
CONTROL REGULATION (1224/2009)
Obligation to mark fishing gear (Art. 8)
Obligation to retrieve and notify lost gear (Art. 48)
Obligation to carry equipment for retrieval on board
Obligation to retrieve the lost gear
Obligation to report lost gear if it cannot be retrieved (id number of vessel, type of gear, time and position of loss, methods of retrieval)
Only one Member State authority reported it routinely collects notifications of lost gear
A significant quantity of retrieved abandoned gear is in fragments, unmarked and therefore difficult to link to the vessel that lost it

10. EMFF - SHARED MANAGEMENT
Existing instruments
EMFF - SHARED MANAGEMENT
Four articles allow for financing of marine litter activities
Art. 40.1(a) (UP1) – Collection of waste by fishermen, removal of lost fishing gear/marine litter
Art. 43 (UP1) – Investments in facilities for waste and marine litter collection
Art. 62 / Art. 63 (UP4) - Community–led local development/CLLD
Art. 80 (UP6) - Integrated Maritime Policy/IMP
The main sources of data and information used were:
Country reports prepared by geographic experts (field research)
Data on planned commitments in EMFF OPs
Data submitted by MS for and 2016 (Art report)
Data of EFF ex-post evaluation
Published literature on marine litter

11. Marine Litter and shared management
Existing instruments
Marine Litter and shared management
• Positive trend since previous period:
Number of MS implementing ‘fishing for litter’ operations doubled
Number of planned operations increased by 130%
Planned EU funding increased by 320% (from 5,2 to 21,8 M€)
• Ensure adequate cover of marine litter post 2020

12. EMFF – DIRECT MANAGEMENT
Existing instruments
EMFF – DIRECT MANAGEMENT
Launch of blue economy call 24/10/2017
Strand on marine litter
Reduce the amount and harmfulness of marine litter from sea-based sources
Monitor and quantify the contribution of sea-based sources of marine litter
Remove and recycle, in an environmentally sound and resource-efficient way, marine litter found in seas and oceans in the European sea basins
Criteria
Added value compared to state of the art
Mechanism for buy-in from relevant stakeholders
Strategy for long-term sustainability
Reduction and prevention
Development and testing of methodologies and/or technologies to prevent and reduce marine litter from sea-based sources, including increased recyclability of fishing and aquaculture gears.
Projects may include e.g.:
 Strategies and/or technologies to prevent the loss or discarding in the marine environment of fishing or aquaculture gears and fish aggregating devices (FADs);
 New product design of fishing and aquaculture gears and FADs that help preventing their loss or voluntary discarding in the sea or the impact of those gears and FADs in the marine environment (including ghost fishing), and/or increase their recyclability:
 Better practices of on-board waste management, e.g. segregation of household and operational waste;
 Training and awareness raising of fishers and the fishing and aquaculture sectors in general, for all the above issues.
b) Monitoring and quantification of marine litter
Development and testing of methodologies and/or technologies to monitor and quantify the contribution of sea-based sources of marine litter in the different compartments (i.e. at the sea surface, in the water column, on the sea floor or along coasts) including transport pathways and hotspots of marine litter facilitating harmonised and standardised approaches as far as possible.105
105
 Supporting the developing and testing of a harmonised methodology for the quantification and mapping of the contribution of fishing or aquaculture gear and of FADs to marine litter;
 Assessing the contribution of containers lost at sea to marine littering;
 Assessing the contribution of waste generated on large cargo, cruise liners and other commercial vessels as well as from the recreational activities to marine litter;
 Developing tools for identifying marine litter hotspots and forecasting marine litter.
c) Removal and recycling
Development and testing of methodologies and/or technologies for environmentally sound and cost-efficient retrieval of marine litter, such as lost gear, fragments of plastic, etc., in open waters and/or coastal areas and for methodologies and/or technologies facilitating recycling and contributing to increasing recycling rates.
 Development of guidance for the retrieval of fishing and aquaculture gears from the marine environment based on environmental impact assessment;
 Development of cost efficient and sustainable measures and methodologies of retrieving marine litter in different compartments i.e. floating litter, sea column, sea floor, and compilation in a data base;
 Schemes for the separate collection of garbage at ports;
 Schemes for the collection, dismantling, preparation for recycling and/or transportation to recycling facilities of fishing gears.

13. MARINE LITTER IN EMODnet
EMODnet collects, aggregates, standardizes, quality checks data and develops new services to share information and products incl. display services/maps
Expanded to marine litter in March 2017 EMODnet:
Beach litter (nets, bottles etc.)
Seafloor litter (i.e. litter collected by fish trawl surveys)
Micro litter (microplastics)
Databases based on existing approaches:
INSPIRE standards
Beach litter - OSPAR-MCS
Seafloor litter - ICES-DATRAS
Coop., inform. data
MARINE LITTER IN EMODnet
EMODnet chemistry: ML in addition to eutrophication, acidification, contaminiants
Categories for beach litter: Master list published in ‘Guidance on Monitoring of Marine Litter in European Seas’ (Galgani et al., 2013)
The reference list of seafloor litter categories from ICES vocabs

14. Ocean Governance G7 – action plan International
Our Ocean 2017 conference in Malta
More than 100 of 437 commitments worth almost 3 billion EURO (0f 7,2) were on fighting marine pollution and plastics, 29 States
Many of the business pledges were on 100% recyclability of packaging (Coca-cola, Pepsi, M&S etc.)
Ocean partnerships to improve coordination and cooperation for better ocean management
7 priority countries: Canada, USA, China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia
G7 – action plan
The European Commission announced that it will phase out by end 2017 all single-use plastic cups in water fountains and vending machines in all its buildings and meetings. It also committed to report on all its efforts towards a further reduction of the use of other single-use plastic items in all its building and events at the occasion of the 2018 Our Ocean Conference. Measures to achieve this will include improving its green public procurement, reducing single-use plastics in canteens and cafeterias, promoting use of tap water, launching a wider awareness raising campaign for staff on waste reduction, sorting and recycling and greening Commission events.

15. "Our Ocean 2017" Commitments
10% of "beach bottle" from recycled beach plastic
$131,000 for measuring flow of trash to ocean
€15 million to advance mechanical recycling of Polyolefins
Plastic packaging to be 100% recyclable and widely recycled by 2022
Design 100% of packaging to be recyclable and increase recycled content of packaging
The same as Pepsi

16. Fishermen – part of the solution
“Fishermen are extremely involved in such innovative initiatives to prevent, recover, reuse and recycle of fishing gears. As an example, thanks to their partnership with KIMO, over 500 fishing vessels landed 2500 tonnes of waste from the sea between which will no longer be affecting the marine environment”
Europêche , 21/03/2018

17. THANKS 